


Merry & Bright

by Blizzard96



Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Dragon AU, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:54:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28316325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blizzard96/pseuds/Blizzard96
Summary: Eleven dragons decide to get together for the holidays. It should all go smoothly, provided they can keep Changmin from lighting everything on fire.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 28





	Merry & Bright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VintageOT5](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VintageOT5/gifts).



> The working title of this was Dragon Boys Z

Younghoon took in a bracing breath of winter air, shivering slightly as a harsh breeze blew past. He sniffed and continued trudging onward, trying to ignore the way that the snow melted into his socks and shoes. He should’ve bought some boots for the winter, but he came up on land so rarely that they didn’t seem worth the investment when he first surfaced. He regretted that now. He held the duffel bag he was carrying tighter to his body, as if that might provide a measure of warmth. It didn’t.

He soldiered on through the snow for another half hour, too preoccupied with his own shivering to take in much of the scenery. Jacob would sometimes wax poetic about the way freshly fallen snow looked from his nest and Eric was always excited to go out during first snowfall to tunnel through the snow piles, but Younghoon wasn’t used to experiencing the elements like this. What he wouldn’t give to be able to dive deep, deep below the surface of the water and avoid all this unpleasant frozen bullsh-

“Agh!” he yelled as a tree chose that exact moment to dump ten pounds of frozen water on his head. He startled backward and fell over in his shock, hitting the snow with a muted thud. Younghoon glared up at the offending tree branch that had decided he need an impromptu snow shower. “I oughta cut your branch off and make it a backscratcher,” he muttered.

The ground rumbled, as if in laughter.

Younghoon sat up abruptly. “Sangyeon?” he called tentatively. He didn't think the other was so close. He’d expected to have to travel another mile through the woods before he encountered the older one but… wait. “How long have you been watching me?!” Younghoon yelled, scrambling to his feet in outrage. The woods were suspiciously silent, and Younghoon barely restrained the urge to stamp his foot.

“Sangyeon! I know you can hear me, stop pretending!” He crossed his arms and spun in a slow circle, as if he might be able to spot a sign of the other. Snow continued to fall as his only answer. Younghoon huffed a breath, steam rising from his mouth. “Come on, man. I’m cold and I’ve been out here for hours! The others are waiting, and you know how they get when they’re left unattended.”

There was finally a loud groaning sound, like the earth itself was moaning in despair. Suddenly, a nearby tree began to shake and all around Younghoon, the forest started shifting. Younghoon immediately panicked.

“Wait! I’m still on your back!” Younghoon said, to no avail as the ground beneath him slowly began to tilt. He cursed and started to run blindly in one direction, duffel bag thumping heavily at his side and slowing him slightly. He no longer had any thought to spare for the snow and the cold, barely managing to dive over a sudden drop and land in a pile of snow as a cliff of rock and ice began to rise from the ground.

It continued to raise into the air until Younghoon could see that what initially appeared to be rocks were actually weather-beaten scales, rising from the ground until a massive leg towered thirty feet over his head. He scrambled back further, worried that the rising mass might crush him by accident, and barely managing to get to his feet in time to avoid a veritable avalanche of snow that came crashing down as the new mountain rose taller and taller.

It was only when the rumbling stopped that Younghoon looked back to see a massive, ancient Earth dragon blinking crusted snow from its eyes. With every blink, snow and ice fell seventy feet to the ground. The dragon resembled a massive turtle with trees and boulders stuck into its great shell. It shuddered, sending another forest’s worth of snow cascading downward.

The dragon worked its jaw, as if testing to make sure it still operated, before letting out a mournful wail, loud enough to make the trees around Younghoon shake and forcing Younghoon himself to clap his hands over his ears. It then proceeded to test all its limbs one at a time, knocking Younghoon off his feet in the process, before it finally swished its short tail once through the air.

“Hurry up!” Younghoon yelled impatiently, tired of being bounced around. The dragon’s sleepy eyes shot him a dirty look.

It let out one last, long groan before it seemed to shrink inward on itself. At first it looked like it was simply retreating into its shell, but then it began to sink lower in height, the trees and rocks on its back melting back into the shell and then steadily growing smaller and smaller until only a tiny form was left in the large crater in the ground where the earth dragon once slept.

Younghoon walked up to the edge of the crater just in time to see the dragon’s rough scales melting into smooth skin on the newly transformed dragon. “Long time no see!” he called to the human.

Sangyeon got to his feet, already starting to shiver in the cold without his thick hide. Younghoon reached into the duffel bag he was carrying to throw Sangyeon a pair of warm sweatpants and a winter coat. Sangyeon struggled to put them on and scrambled to the edge, where Younghoon pulled him up over the lip of the crater. Sangyeon flopped on the ground as Younghoon dug in his bag for some socks and boots.

“I was hibernating,” Sangyeon said. To Younghoon it sounded like the other was pouting. This was confirmed when Younghoon turned with a pair of socks in his hand to see the petulant expression on Sangyeon’s face.

“You’ve slept long enough,” Younghoon snorted, tossing Sangyeon the thick, wool socks. “And we all promised to meet up this winter anyway.”

“Why do we have to do this in the winter anyway?” Sangyeon sighed.

Younghoon shrugged. “Jacob wanted to see some kind of light display that the humans put on every year and Chanhee said that there was a food festival of some sort, so obviously Sunwoo and Haknyeon wanted to go.”

Sangyeon tugged on the socks with a frown before Younghoon handed over the snow boots. “I get it. Tell me Kevin at least found us all a place this time. I’m not going back to Eric’s subway tunnels.”

Younghoon winced as well at the thought. None of them wanted to go back to Eric’s place again. The last time they were there Younghoon saw no less than five rats trying to make their bed in Jaehyun’s hair at one point or another. “No, Kevin found us a pretty cheap place for the month. It’s a big house he found on some website that was renting it out.”

Sangyeon let out a breath in relief. “Good. Do you need any help finding the others?”

“No,” Younghoon said, shaking his head, “Sunwoo’s getting Haknyeon, Kevin, Eric and Jacob were already in the area, Jaehyun was telling Juyeon and Chanhee was finding Changmin. They should all be getting in around the same time that we get back.”

“Sounds good,” Sangyeon said, now fully dressed. “Alright, let’s get a move on. I don’t want to be out in the woods after dark, and the sun goes down pretty quick these days.”

“Agreed,” Younghoon said, zipping up his now empty bag. He looked around. “Okay, I think we go… That way?” He tentatively pointed off in one direction.

“You don’t know?” Sangyeon asked, eyebrows raising.

“I kind of got turned around when I was trying to get off your back,” Younghoon stated dryly.

Sangyeon looked mildly sheepish. “Uh, sorry. Lead on, I guess.” They both started the long walk through the snow back toward civilization.

* * *

Kevin narrowed his eyes at the decorations, wondering what would look better over the fireplace. The popcorn garland? No, one of the others would probably eat that within five minutes of entering. The wreath? But what if it caught fire? Knowing Changmin, everything would probably catch fire at some point over the course of the month. Kevin tugged at a strand of hair hanging in his eyes in frustration as he tried to figure out what might work.

“Dude,” Eric said, muffled around the candy cane sticking out of a corner of his mouth, “You’ve been staring at the fireplace for fifteen minutes. Just pick something.”

“It has to work, Eric!” Kevin said, spinning around, “It has to look good! We’re probably going to take pictures in front of it, and if I just throw decorations up willy nilly how can I call myself an artist?”

Eric snorted, “We don’t have anything fancy enough for that, just put the stockings there. That’s traditional for the holiday, right?”

Kevin brightened. “You’re right! The stockings should go there. Now where are my command hooks…”

Jacob took that moment to emerge from the kitchen and wave the house phone around, “Good news everyone! All the food is ordered for the holiday, so we’ll just have to go pick it up from the restaurant in a couple weeks.”

“Thanks Jacob!” Kevin called as the other disappeared to put the phone back. They’d originally planned to cook the meal themselves, but decided against it as they wouldn’t even know where to begin on procuring all the food to satisfy all eleven of them.

Kevin was just hanging up the first stocking while Jacob and Eric worked on the tree, when there was a tapping at the window. Kevin ignored it at first, thinking it might be a tree branch, when it suddenly came again, louder and more insistent. He finally looked to the window to see a small white scaled dragon with feathery pink wings hovering outside, tiny wings beating against the winter winds and looking as though it might be swept away at any moment.

“Shit! Eric! Window!” Kevin yelled, stumbling toward the window himself and nearly tripping over a box of Christmas ornaments in the process.

Eric looked up from where he’d just looped an ornament in the shape of a T-bone steak onto one of the tree’s branches. “Huh?” He looked to the window, “Oh fuck, sorry Chanhee!” He rushed to the window and threw it open, allowing the tiny white dragon to flutter in. The dragon immediately dropped to the floor, clearly exhausted from its battle with the wind and snow.

“Chanhee?” Kevin asked, moving to stand over the dragon. It let out a squeak. “Jacob, go light a fire in the fireplace. We’ll let him sit in front of it to warm up.” Jacob nodded and went to do so, running to the kitchen to retrieve a book of matches.

“Wasn’t he supposed to be coming with Changmin?” Eric asked.

As if on cue, there was a knock on the apartment door. Kevin crossed the room to open it to reveal a smiling, red faced Changmin.

“Hey Kevin!” he beamed, wrapping Kevin in a hug. “Happy holidays!” He then bounded into the apartment, loudly greeting Eric and Jacob as well. Kevin locked the door behind him and turned to see that one of them had moved Chanhee in front of the fireplace while Jacob tried to light a match. He let out a frustrated noise every time one failed to light.

“What happened to him?” Eric asked, eyes flicking toward Chanhee with concern.

Changmin sighed. “We were flying in together, but Chanhee got caught up in a pretty strong air current. I tried to chase after him, but we got separated. I thought he might try to come here first, so I headed here myself. I was going to tell you guys so we could all go out and look for him, but it looks like he beat me here.”

“Poor Chanhee,” Jacob said.

“He’ll be fine. Just needs some sleep,” Changmin said, “And probably food. You guys pick anything up yet? I can run to the store if we need to.”

“I have some food for dinner in the fridge,” Jacob said, “And we have plenty of snacks.”

“Sounds good.” Changmin flopped on one of the cream colored couches, pulling the fuzzy red blanket off the back and throwing it over Chanhee’s sleeping form. “Nice place you found too, Kevin.”

“Thanks,” Kevin said, “It had a good deal and allowed magical creatures.”

Changmin laughed, “Well I’d hope so.”

“The others should be getting in soon,” Jacob reported. “Sangyeon just texted that he and Younghoon are only about twenty minutes away but their Uber is stuck in traffic. The others should be flying in.”

Kevin nodded. “In the meantime, you should help us decorate.”

“Or at least help us get a fire going,” Jacob said, looking up from where he’d been desperately trying to strike a match with no luck.

“Wait, I’m not sure that-“ Kevin began.

Changmin’s eyes lit up. “You got it!” He jumped up from the couch and stood in front of the fire, stance wide as he sucked in a breath before exhaling a stream of flames into the fireplace. In seconds, a roaring fire was sitting in the hearth… and also the stocking Kevin had hung up was now ablaze.

“Fire!” Kevin screamed. The smoke alarm took that moment to start screaming as well.

“Water!” Jacob yelled, running toward the kitchen. “I’ll get water!”

“Where’s Younghoon when you need him?” Eric wailed. Chanhee snored, blissfully oblivious to the chaos around him.

Jacob emerged from the kitchen with a mop bucket full of water seconds laters as Kevin was attempting to beat out the fire with his shirt. “Move!” Jacob threw the bucket of water at the stocking, putting out the fire, though the smell of smoke and blare of the fire alarm lingered.

“Shut up!” Eric yelled, trying to fan the smoke away from the alarm as Changmin opened a window.

“Uh… whoops?” Changmin said with an embarrassed grin.

“My aesthetic!” Kevin whined, taking in the ruined stocking that would definitely mess up his artistic vision for the fireplace.

Jacob buried his face in his hands. “I hope this isn’t a bad omen.”

* * *

The house was much livelier with eleven boys in it, not that Jaehyun had expected anything less. He and Juyeon were the last to get in (and were subsequently teased for it), but now everyone was starting to split off into smaller groups since dinner had concluded. Sangyeon had lost the rock-paper-scissors tournament, to no one’s surprise, and he along with Chanhee and Changmin were currently working their way through the small mountain of dirty dishes from the meal.

Eric, Kevin, Haknyeon and Sunwoo were crowded around the television playing some shooter game while Younghoon rummaged through the fridge for his After Dinner Meal. Jaehyun took advantage of everyone else being distracted to look through all the bedrooms. There were four in total, three had doubles and there was one with a single, which left four of them without a place to sleep. Jaehyun grimaced. If he’d thought the competition to get out of doing the dishes that evening was bad, the jockeying for sleeping arrangements would be even worse.

He found Jacob in the hallway sorting through the linen cabinet. “Hey,” he called.

Jacob looked up from where he was frowning down at a particularly worn washcloth. “Oh, Jaehyun. What’s up?”

“Have you counted the beds?” he asked, keeping his voice low to avoid any of the others hearing them. Dragon hearing could be a real pain to avoid.

Jacob winced. “Unfortunately. The couch pulls out to a bed that two people could sleep on, but we’re still short two by my count.”

“Wanna rock-paper-scissors for who sleeps in the bathtub?” Jaehyun asked, and then laughed at the face Jacob made in response.

“We can go to the store tomorrow to pick up an air mattress and switch off who gets the beds, but all the stores are closed now and I don’t know what we’re going to do for tonight.”

Jaehyun frowned, thinking hard about who they could possibly shuffle to the floor without getting a full blown, possibly explosive, tantrum in response. And then, it hit him. “I think I have an idea for one of them.” He scurried off to the kitchen without waiting for Jacob’s response.

In the kitchen, Sangyeon, Changmin and Chanhee were all still scrubbing away at the dishes. “Changmin!” Jaehyun declared, startling the other and making him splash Chanhee in the face by accident.

“My eyes!” Chanhee shrieked, hands immediately moving to rub at them, though that only seemed to make the issue worse.

“Rinse them out!” Sangyeon said, picking up the spray nozzle and squirting it directly at Chanhee’s face. This only caused Chanhee to scream louder as Sangyeon hadn’t remembered to lower the temperature and was now dousing Chanhee with steaming hot water. Jaehyun sprang to try and grab the nozzle from Sangyeon, only causing the other to jerk backward and send water all over the walls and floor.

“Turn it off!”

“Oh shit!”

“Sangyeon, take your finger off the trigger!”

“MY EYES!!”

“We heard you the first time!”

“SHUT UP, WE’RE TRYING TO PLAY!!”

“You shut up, Sunwoo!”

After nearly five minutes of scrambling, Sangyeon had finally recovered enough of his wits to lead Chanhee to the bathroom to wash out his eyes, leaving Jaehyun alone in a soaking wet kitchen with Changmin, who looked completely unruffled by the encounter.

“What was it you wanted to talk about?” Changmin asked, looking completely unfazed by the chaos that had been occurring just moments earlier.

“Huh?” Jaehyun had almost completely forgotten what he came in for. “Oh right, how would you like to sleep in the best place in the house tonight?”

Changmin raised an eyebrow. “I’ve already toured through all the rooms,” he said, and there’s hardly bed in this place that I’d write home about.”

“That’s because you’re not thinking big enough!” Jaehyun said, throwing in a sweeping hand gesture for flair. “How would you… like to have the fireplace all to yourself?”

The other dragon’s eyes lit up. “Really? I thought I was banned after last time!”

Jaehyun tried not to grimace as he remembered the last time Changmin had been allowed in the fireplace in his dragon form. He’d managed to block out memories of filling out paperwork for property damage in the years since, but he could still smell the smoke in his nostrils occasionally. “Well, we decided to lift that ban just for tonight.”

“Then count me in!” Changmin said. “I’ll get my special pj’s!” He ran out of the room, nearly slipping on all the water still on the floor in his haste to get his… special pj’s. Jaehyun assumed they were fire proof, at least he hoped they were.

At that moment Younghoon took the opportunity to re-enter the kitchen, an empty container of what had once been deli meat in his hand. He must’ve finished his After Dinner Meal and was thinking about his After After Dinner Meal already.

“Whoa,” Younghoon said, looking at all the water on the floor. “What happened here?”

“Oh, you know,” Jaehyun explained without explaining anything. Another idea popped into his head. “Younghoon, how would you like to sleep in the best place in the house tonight?” Jaehyun asked with his best ‘used car salesman’ voice and winning smile combo. Younghoon gave him a blank look but didn’t immediately scoff, so Jaehyun thought he might have a shot at convincing him. “Tell me, have you seen how big the bathtub in this place is?”

* * *

The next morning Sangyeon awoke to see the house had thankfully not burned down. He was certain that they had a fifty-fifty chance of that happening last night after Jaehyun explained that Changmin would be sleeping in the fireplace. Fortunately, there wasn’t so much as a scorch mark as Changmin still appeared to be fast asleep in his dragon form on a pile of ash and embers. His bright red scales looked muddy brown in the rising sunlight.

Sangyeon tried to get back to bed, god knew he was tired enough after being disturbed from his hibernation, but no matter how hard he tried to count sheep or even the number of Haknyeon’s snores next to him, he couldn’t fall back to sleep. He conceded with a sigh, swinging his legs off the pullout bed and padding through the quiet house to the bathroom, grabbing a towel from the linen closet on the way. He was hoping he could maybe get a shower in… only to find Younghoon submerged in the tub once he flicked the lights on. The other didn’t even surface when Sangyeon entered, so he turned the lights back off the lights and trudged to the other bathroom.

Thankfully, there were no dragons sleeping in this one, so Sangyeon went through the motions of his morning shower and getting dressed. He really should buy new clothes while he was here if they were going to be living here for a month, he thought absently. Maybe he could talk to Kevin and see if there were any thrift shops they could all stop by at. The house had a washer and dryer, so at least that wouldn’t be an issue.

When he finally left the bathroom, steam billowing after him, he found Eric half awake and sitting at the breakfast table, a bowl of cereal in front of him. Eric was staring forward with a blank expression, and Sangyeon thought the other looked ready to face plant into his breakfast any minute now.

“Hey,” Sangyeon whispered, trying not to to wake up Haknyeon or Changmin. “If you’re tired you should be asleep. We don’t have anywhere to be.”

Eric flinched a bit when he first heard Sangyeon’s voice, but relaxed as he seemed to realize where he was. “I wish I could, man.” He ran a hand through his hair, “It’s hard to sleep without the city sounds.”

Eric lived in the heart of the city in a few abandoned subway tunnels that had been boarded off, though most of those boards had rotted away from weather or had been pried off by teenagers hoping to tag the subway walls. Sangyeon had heard quite a few stories about how Eric played around scaring any teenagers dumb enough to wander into his territory. He was pretty sure Eric had a couple magical exterminators after him.

“I get that,” Sangyeon said, “The forest is noisier then here. And the air is fresher.” He gave Eric a look. “Unlike your clogged city smell.”

Eric laughed. They’d been having this debate for years. “I happen to _prefer_ it when everything smells like hotdogs and car exhaust.”

“And the rats?”

“You mean the free pets?”

“Please tell me you don’t actually touch any of those things.”

“But they’re so cute! They always come up asking for cuddles!”

“You’re going to get rabies.”

“Dragons can’t get rabies.”

“That’s a myth.”

“Then why haven’t I ever heard about a dragon getting rabies?”

“Because all the dragons who get rabies are dead.”

“Actually, they did a study on it and dragons can get rabies, but only in their human form.” Both of them jumped at the sudden addition of Haknyeon’s voice. Sangyeon turned to see the other boy propped up on his elbows on the pullout couch, hair sticking up wildly.

“Sorry Haknyeon, did we wake you up?” Sangyeon asked.

Haknyeon yawned. “Yeah, but it’s okay. I usually wake up around this time anyway. Gotta take the herd out to graze early.” Sangyeon assumed Haknyeon was referring to the small group of sheep and pigs he tended to as, for some reason, villagers kept gifting animals to him. Haknyeon said that the villagers in a town next to his cave thought it brought good fortune to sacrifice animals to the local dragon, but Haknyeon was starting to run out of space to put them.

_“Why don’t you just eat them?” Sunwoo had once asked. Haknyeon had looked offended by the very question._

_“If I wanted meat, I could walk to the butcher like everyone else,” he’d replied. “It would be rude to kill and waste a gift from the neighbors.”_

“Why were you reading a study about dragons getting rabies?” Eric asked, bringing Sangyeon out of his thoughts.

“Well Sunwoo was eating local wildlife again and I thought he might get sick from eating a raccoon or something.”

“He was only eating them in his dragon form, right?” Sangyeon asked, hoping dearly that he would not have to take Sunwoo in to get vaccinated. Again.

“Yeah,” Haknyeon replied, much to Sangyeon’s relief. “I don’t know why he was even doing that. There were a bunch of shops in town.”

“He just likes the thrill of hunting,” Eric said.

“Then he should stop harassing my sheep!”

Sangyeon laughed. “Maybe you should make him wear one of those electric fence collars in case he gets too close to your livestock.”

Haknyeon’s eyes lit up. “Maybe I should! That can be his Christmas present.”

* * *

“Okay, I found a good human tradition that we can all do, so gather round!” Chanhee yelled, clicking off the TV with the remote. There were immediate protests from Kevin, Juyeon and Sunwoo, who had all been watching Sugar Rush’s Christmas episodes. The rest of the boys were out that afternoon, either running errands or window shopping for presents.

“What the fuck?” Sunwoo said, throwing his hands up, “We were just getting to the judging!”

“Well, I thought we could do some food decorating too!” Chanhee said.

Juyeon perked up at the mention of food. “What’d you find?”

“Turn around!” Chanhee said, pointing at the table behind them. The three boys on the couch grumbled as they straightened up enough to peer over the back of the sofa. On the dining room table were four fairly sizable boxes.

“What’s that?” Kevin asked.

Chanhee rolled his eyes. “Get up and look, lazy ass.” All three of the other dragons whined and groaned and generally made a big production of being _forced_ off the couch and how _cruel_ Chanhee was to be making them be productive before noon, but eventually they all trudged over to the table.

“Gingerbread houses?” Juyeon asked, looking over the box once he was seated at the table. The pictured on the packaging depicted four smiling gingerbread people and a simple house decorated with frosting and candies. Along with the boxes, the others now noticed the assortment of icing supplies and candy bags Chanhee had set out.

“Yep!” Chanhee said, “I was thinking we could try decorating so we’d have some nice displays for the season!”

Kevin already looked excited. “That’s a great idea! I always wanted to try to make one.” Juyeon nodded along, Chanhee glowed with the praise. Sunwoo was looking over the picture with a pensive expression.

“I think I have an idea for what I want to make already,” Sunwoo said, pulling open one of the box’s flaps and dumping out its contents.

“Careful!” Chanhee cried, “You’re gonna break all the pieces!” Sunwoo paid him no heed though, scattering crumbs and gingerbread all over the table.

“I do too!” Kevin said, pulling out his own gingerbread house, “But I think I’m going to have to cut down some of the pieces.”

“Same,” Juyeon agreed. He had already snapped off the corner of one of the large flat squares that were supposed to be the gingerbread house’s walls.

“Well, it’s about creativity,” Chanhee said, though dread was building in his stomach. He picked up his own box to start pulling out the cookies. “I wonder what everyone’s going to make.”

An hour and three fights over various pieces of candy and frosting later, the completed gingerbread houses were done. ‘House’, though, was a generous term for the abominations that some of them had made.

“It’s a haunted house!” Sunwoo said, proudly displaying his barely standing gingerbread house that oozed red frosting and black licorice. The gingerbread people had various limbs ripped off with one even missing its head. A crudely drawn ghost was iced into one of the windows, mouth opened wide in a silent scream.

“That’s… creative,” Chanhee offered with a slightly forced smile.

“I love all the blood detail on the people,” Kevin said.

“Thanks!” Sunwoo smiled, “I tried to get the splatters just right! I’ve never eaten a person, but how different from sheep can they be?” No one quite knew what to say to that.

“Uh, alright. Juyeon next?” Chanhee said, not wanting to look at the gingerbread atrocity any longer. There was a gingerbread man skewered on a length of peppermint that seemed to be staring right into his eyes, as if accusing Chanhee for his unfortunate fate.

“Right!” Juyeon gestured grandly to his own creation.

It was somehow more of a mess than Sunwoo’s, candy and frosting spilling from what appeared to be a gingerbread cone. The gingerbread citizens unfortunate enough to be caught in the icing landslide wore horrified expressions as they were swallowed into the mess.

Chanhee blinked. “Is it…” _A disaster? An abyss? A portrayal of the eventual heat death of the universe?_ “A volcano?”

“No! It’s a hurricane!” Juyeon said, “Look! There’s even houses being sucked into it!” Indeed there were tiny Monopoly houses that Juyeon had pulled from somewhere stuck into the display.

“I guess you would know a lot about hurricanes,” Sunwoo said. The storm dragon practically lived in eye of one. Chanhee wondered if he would be able to set these out to show others or if he should somehow convince Juyeon to eat it and destroy the evidence, Monopoly houses and all.

“Kevin’s up next,” Chanhee said.

“Alright!” Kevin perked up, clearly eager to explain his piece. It was an open plan gingerbread square made much larger with supplemented walls of rice cakes and chocolate bars to expand the terrain, making it a nearly three foot square. In front of the walls jutted candy canes sharpened into spikes and rows of gumdrops. The floor of the area was layered with marshmallows.

“Behold!” Kevin proclaimed, “My castle!”

“Huh?” Juyeon asked.

Suddenly, in a puff of smoke, Kevin was gone and a foot long wyrm squirmed on the table in front of the gingerbread house. The wyrm flapped its tiny wings and flew over the spiked candy canes to land and recline on the fluffy marshmallows, looking downright pleased with itself. Juyeon and Sunwoo both immediately looked jealous, and Chanhee wasn’t too far off. He wanted a marshmallow house.

After a few minutes of looking smug, the wyrm flew out of its marshmallow bed and Kevin was back with another cloud of smoke.

“See? That’s were I’m gonna sleep tonight.”

“You’re gonna get all sticky,” Sunwoo said, bitterly crossing his arms. Kevin waved the comment off.

“Okay, moving on to Chanhee’s!” Kevin proclaimed.

Chanhee’s house was downright boring next to the other boys’ creations. It had been assembled similarly to the picture on the box, complete with tiny gingerbread family, save for one small alteration that Chanhee had added on a whim.

“Uh, what’s that?” Kevin asked, pointing to the piece Chanhee had constructed out of pretzels and marshmallow fluff.

“Oh, that’s the ballista,” Chanhee said. A beat of silence passed.

“The ballista?” Juyeon asked.

“Yeah,” Chanhee replied, “You know, to shoot down seagulls.” Sunwoo snorted, covered his mouth, and then started laughing loudly when he couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“Are the seagulls bullying you again, Chanhee?” Kevin asked, using his best ‘you can talk to me about anything’ voice, though the effect was slightly ruined by the amused waver in his tone.

“Did one steal your fries again?” Sunwoo laughed.

“Or your shiny rocks?” Juyeon added.

Chanhee flushed, “Seagulls are a menace to society!” he yelled, causing the other to to burst out laughing alongside Sunwoo, “This isn’t funny! They are menaces to society that steal food from good, hardworking dragons and- stop laughing! A ballista is a perfectly normal response to have to warding off seagulls!”

Despite Chanhee’s protests, the other’s continued to snicker at him until the other members returned from their errands to see their gingerbread monstrosities… and then the rest of them started laughing at him too. Chanhee pouted for the rest of the night until Kevin promised to build a marshmallow bed for Chanhee in apology after the next run to the grocery store.

* * *

Two weeks before Christmas Changmin was frowning down at the sweater he was currently wearing. It was an oversized red monstrosity with a reindeer on it that itched like a thousand tiny insect legs were trailing over his skin. It didn’t help that Kevin insisted that the fireplace be lit for the commemorative photo he planned on taking. Normally, Changmin wholeheartedly supported the addition of fire to any situation, but his human form was unfortunately much worse at regulating temperature than his dragon one, leaving him in an unpleasant sweat.

“Just take the picture already!” Jaehyun snapped, looking as itchy and overheated as Changmin felt. Many of the others seemed to silently agree with the sky dragon, Sunwoo scowling at the spiky Christmas tree branch poking him in the side while Juyeon kept picking at a loose thread at the hem of his sweater, seemingly intent on unraveling the whole thing to just be done with it.

“I have to get it right!” Kevin said, fussing with a large camera set up on a tripod.

“Why do we even need a picture?” Eric whined. He had it even worse than most of them with his back being directly in front of the fireplace. He had turned red from the heat and his hair was drooping a bit already.

“It’s sentimental!” Kevin said, “So shut the fuck up and deal!” There was a chorus of disapproving mumbles in response. After a few more minutes of Kevin directing the others to move left, then right, then left again, then lean down, no straighten up, put your hand down, get closer, “OKAY PERFECT!” Kevin yelled, “DON’T MOVE!”

He hit the button on the camera and a beeping noise started up as the timer began counting. Kevin ran around the camera to squat down next to Jacob in the front. “Smile everyone!”

Changmin proceeded to think about that time he managed to lay across the flat top stove at the local hibachi place for a full five minutes before being escorted out by a horrified kitchen staff. The memory always brought a wide grin to his face. The camera’s beeping sped up and then clicked as the flash blinked three times.

“Alright, everyone relax,” Kevin said, scrambling back to his place behind the camera. Changmin sighed in relief as Kevin looked through the photos.

“I hope this is over soon,” Haknyeon muttered to Changmin’s left.

Changmin nodded in agreement. “It’s too hot in here for this.”

“Better than being outside,” Sangyeon said grimly, wiping at his forehead. Changmin shuddered. He could see out the window that snow was falling, not in gentle flakes but heavy clumps. It was already likely around shin height, and he couldn’t imagine standing out there for longer than five minutes.

“Well?” Sunwoo called impatiently to Kevin, “How’s it look?”

Kevin was frowning at the digital window. Changmin held back a groan. “All of them have someone blinking in them. We’ll have to go again.” A sigh traveled through the group. “It’ll be fast!” Kevin said, hitting the button on the camera again before running back to his spot. “Smile!”

Changmin channeled his next tier of happy thoughts, the one time he managed to sneak into an oven at the local pizzeria. It was a whole ten minutes before he was discovered that time, though it ended worse than the time at the hibachi joint as he was unceremoniously chased out with a broom rather than politely escorted. Still, the flames in the oven had been high and he’d even managed to snag a pizza on the way out. Still a win in his book.

The camera flashed three more times, and Changmin made a conscious effort to keep his eyes open.

“Okay, relax!” Kevin called again. Changmin let the tension out of his shoulders.

“I’m going to die,” Haknyeon said, pulling at the neck of his sweater in a vain attempt to let in some cooler air.

“Do you guys think we’ll get our photos first, or Eric will have a heat stroke first?” Younghoon wondered from behind Changmin.

Changmin turned his head. “My money’s on Eric passing out first.” He glanced as said boy to see Eric looking about five seconds from ripping the sweater off. His hands were already morphing back and forth between claws and fists. Sweat was beginning to visibly run down his face and Chanhee, who was standing next to him, had grabbed a box of tissues and was handing them to Eric with a vaguely disgusted expression.

“Please tell me that was good,” Jacob begged, straightening out his legs from where he’d been squatting. Jaehyun winced as Jacob’s knees made a popping noise.

Kevin narrowed his eyes at the digital screen. “There was one that might work,” he began, making Changmin perk up, “But we should probably take another round just to be safe.”

“Oh, come on!” Sunwoo yelled.

“It won’t be too bad, just one more round…” Juyeon said. Kevin gave him a grateful look.

“Right. Real fast and then everyone can go change,” Kevin said.

Eric sighed, crumpling up the sweaty wad of tissues in his hand before tossing them out of frame. “Just hurry up!”

“You’re cleaning that up,” Jaehyun said, looking at the tissues disapprovingly. Eric nodded absently.

Kevin hit the camera button one last time. “Last one!” He scrambled back to his spot.

Changmin dragged up one last happy memory. He recalled the previous summer when they all went camping for a week. One evening they had had a bonfire and allowed Changmin (in his dragon form, of course) to curl up in the middle of the flames. They had all stuck marshmallows and sausages on sticks over the fire, some of which Changmin had swiped before they could pull the food back in time.

_Click! Click! Click!_

The shutter stopped flashing and Changmin watched as Eric immediately threw off his Christmas sweater to land in a crumpled heap on the carpet. “Freedom!” he yelled, running to scoop up all the tissues he’d thrown aside earlier and then dashing to the kitchen to throw them way.

“I’m not doing this again!” Sunwoo declared, pulling off his sweater as well. “I’m going to go open the fridge and stick my head in the freezer if anyone wants to join me.” Younghoon and Juyeon followed him eagerly.

Changmin decided to head back to the room he shared with Haknyeon, pulling his sweater off and throwing it on the bed. He let out a sigh of relief as cool air soon began to flow through his thin T-shirt.

“Finally,” Haknyeon said, entering soon after. He had his own sweater in hand, and it joined Changmin’s on the bed right before Haknyeon flopped face first onto a pillow. There was a muffled noise that Changmin assumed was an exhausted moan. He reached a hand down to pat Haknyeon on the back, but thought better of it when he noticed how wet the other’s shirt looked.

Haknyeon wormed his way under the covers, and seconds later the head of a blue dragon emerged. Haknyeon had grown in size in his dragon form and now completely covered the whole bed.

“Hey!” Changmin protested, pushing at the dragon’s fore leg. “Move over!”

Haknyeon just let out a snort, smoke trailing up from his nostrils, but he did shift slightly so that there was a bare sliver of space on the edge. Changmin grumbled a bit more, but eventually slid into the space, grabbing at what spare blanket he could find. He only intended to shut his eyes for a moment, but ended up drifting off to sleep until Jaehyun woke them both up for dinner three hours later.

* * *

Christmas was only a week away, and Younghoon was struggling with wrapping paper. He’d thought the most difficult part of the holiday season would be finding gifts for ten other members, but what was actually tripping him up was trying to make sure all the presents didn’t look like they were wrapped by a blind honey badger. Currently, he was sitting in his room with the door locked as he attempted to fight against the tubes of brightly colored paper and rolls of tape. He was losing.

He groaned as he studied his latest attempt. It was a soft blanket for Chanhee to line his nest with, as the other dragon had always complained about the sea breezes in the winter. The present was a misshapen lump of paper barely held together by fifty pieces of tape. Younghoon frowned, wondering if the other side was just as bad. He flipped the present over. The other side was slightly crumpled, but much better.

He stuck a bow on it for flair. One down (kind of), nine to go.

His next present was for Sangyeon. He was a bit more difficult to shop for since he spent most of his time hibernating, but Younghoon thought the other would appreciate a white noise speaker. It was battery operated so the other wouldn’t have to worry about finding an outlet.

Younghoon steeled himself as he unrolled another length of wrapping paper, laid the present out, and very carefully cut the paper to fit. That was the easy part. He then folded over the left side and then the right, conscious of keeping the paper as unwrinkled as possible.

‘I’m doing it!’ he thought triumphantly as he managed to get a piece of tape down to hold where the edges met. He then tried to diagonally fold one of the open ends, and that was when everything quickly started going wrong.

The paper creased too short and when he tried to fix it by folding the other way, it ripped slightly. He taped up the rip and went to fold the end toward the middle, but there was a lot of excess paper and it ended up bulging outward unattractively. He tucked the sides in and taped them, but then it just looked like a crumpled mess. When he tried to fold the other open end, the results were similar. Sangyeon’s gift turned out just as lumpy as Chanhee’s.

Younghoon stuck a bow on it.

Kevin’s present was a new sketchbook and pencil set. The sketchbook part seemed easy enough to wrap, but the pencils kept sliding everywhere. One poked a hole through the paper, that Younghoon covered up with a sticker of a smiling snowman. Then another pencil poked out the other end. He covered that one up with a tree sticker. By the time he’d finished the wrapping, the present was more sticker than paper.

Younghoon stuck a bow on it.

Sunwoo’s present was a set of various sauces and seasonings he saw at the grocery store. It was an irregular shape, so the wrapping was even more difficult than usual. The bottom was square, but the top was open so Younghoon just ended up twisting the end of the wrapping paper and taping it around to stay in place.

Younghoon stuck a bow on it.

Jacob’s present was a series of cute shawls that he found online. The seller said they were initially made for her pet ducks. Younghoon thought Jacob could find some use for them with his own pet geese that he had accidentally adopted after sitting on a nest of abandoned goose eggs. Jacob had referred to them as his children, and been very sad when they had all migrated for the first time this year as the season’s changed. Sunwoo joked he had empty nest syndrome.

The shawls were already lumpy and squishy, making it difficult to keep them in one spot while he wrapped. They kept sliding out of open ends in the paper, turning the bottom into a chaotic web of tape.

Younghoon stuck a bow on it.

Eric’s present was a set of spray paint to decorate his subway tunnels with. The spray cans were an odd shape as well, and Younghoon had trouble with the ends of the cylinders. He ended up just twisting the ends of the wrapping paper like a giant Tootsie roll, thought the flared parts still sagged sadly.

Younghoon stuck a bow on it.

Juyeon’s present was a blinking light that Younghoon thought that the other could clip onto his wings. The storm dragon was constantly having close calls when flying, nearly running into passing aircraft. He hoped that if the dragon had something like this, perhaps the planes would avoid him more by thinking he was another plane.

The safety light started going off as Younghoon wrapped it, making him scramble to try and find a way to turn it off. He tried whacking it against the bed, but the flashing light didn’t stop until he finally located a switch on the back of the light. But the damage was done and the wrapping paper was in poor shape. Unsalvageably wrinkled with a few holes in it.

Younghoon stuck a bow on it.

Jaehyun’s gift was straightforward at least. He’d mentioned wanting a travel guide to China since he planned on flying back sometime to visit and clean off his former shrine. Younghoon was just happy to be told what to get instead of spending hours in the store wandering up and down the aisles hoping that something jumped out at him.

The book was easy to wrap at first being rectangular, but Younghoon realized quickly that he had measured the paper wrong. The bottom part of the present didn’t quite reach all the way around, revealing a sliver of visible book. Younghoon grabbed a piece of tinsel and wrapped it around lengthwise to cover the exposed area. It looked bad.

Younghoon stuck a bow on it.

Changmin’s gift was difficult as Sangyeon had banned the group from buying the dragon anything to do with fire. Unfortunately that was Changmin’s favorite thing, so Younghoon was at a bit of a loss at first for what to get him. Eventually he’d settled on a pair of snow boots, as Changmin was constantly forgetting to dress warmly in his human form.

The boots were by far the most difficult to wrap. The final shape of the present was odd, and Younghoon wasn’t sure the paper would survive even the trip to get under the tree. He’d have to be extra careful taking this one out.

Younghoon stuck a bow on it.

Finally, Haknyeon’s gift. The other was similarly hard to shop for since he hadn’t asked for anything. He claimed there wasn’t much room in his cave for material goods, and his livestock would likely eat or break anything anyway. Younghoon had settled on a gift card to one of Haknyeon’s favorite restaurant. Hopefully the other boy would be able to use it before it got lost.

He was happy enough to just stick this present in an envelope and write Haknyeon’s name on the side. He grimaced slightly when he realized the ink had smeared from the pressure of his hand and the ‘K’ in Haknyeon’s name had ended up a little lopsided and dark since he’d tried to fix the letter and only managed to make the mistake more pronounced.

Younghoon hesitated. And then he stuck a bow on it.

* * *

It was Christmas Eve, and excitement filled the house. Jacob and Chanhee were running around the kitchen, putting away the food they had ordered to be reheated for dinner the next day. Kevin was putting the finishing touches on decorations by making sure all the stockings were in place over the fire and re-arranging the tree. He had a yardstick with him and no one was dumb enough to get in his way. Juyeon and Jaehyun had been making hot chocolate all day on their Keurig, and Changmin was helping Haknyeon bake trays and trays of cookies.

Eric was contributing by eating all the cookies as they came out. After all, someone had to test them to make sure they were okay, right? Sangyeon was sitting next to him on the couch, absentmindedly flipping through the channels on TV to find a good Christmas movie.  
“How about that one?” Eric said, glancing at something that looked like a bland but Christmassy title.

“I would rather die than watch the Hallmark channel,” Sangyeon said, pushing a button on the remote.

“We could just watch a classic,” Eric said.

“I think Frosty the Snowman comes on later,” Younghoon said, reaching down to snag a cookie from the plate sitting in Eric’s lap. Eric slapped at his hand, but was ultimately unsuccessful in warding him off. The water dragon smirked triumphantly as he crunched down on the cookie and flopped on the couch next to Eric.

“No,” Sangyeon replied, “Changmin just asks why he can’t melt the snowman whenever he watches that.”

“What about The Grinch?”

“Sunwoo views him as a role model.”

“Rudolph?”

“Juyeon doesn’t shut up about how he can fly better.”

“Home Alone?”

“Do you _really_ want to give Eric ideas?”

“Hey!” Eric protested.

Sangyeon gave him a steady look. “Am I wrong?”

Eric wilted a bit under the older dragon’s gaze. “No…”

“Why don’t we just watch Die Hard,” Younghoon said.

Sangyeon paused. “Yeah! Why don’t we just watch Die Hard?”

“We are NOT watching Die Hard!” Jacob’s voice called out from the kitchen.

“Damn,” Sangyeon muttered.

Eventually after much debate, voting, and Chanhee threatening to get Changmin to light the tree on fire if they didn’t just pick something, the group settled on watching Elf with their Christmas Eve dinner of Chinese takeout from the one restaurant in town that was still open.

* * *

Christmas was exciting for Kevin and he could barely sleep the entire night, already anticipating the presents and food to come the next day. He was tossing and turning until his roommate that evening, Eric, threatened to throw him out the window into a snow drift if he moved around one more time. Kevin had pouted but tried to keep his movements to a minimum, despite his mind racing with anticipation.

Eventually he must have fallen asleep because he was jolted back to consciousness when the alarm he had set for 7AM started going off. Kevin grinned wide even as Eric whined and smacked Kevin with a pillow to get him to shut off the phone.

“It’s too early!” Eric complained as Kevin tugged him out of bed.

“It’s CHRISTMAS!” Kevin exclaimed, pulling out his special Christmas Pajama’s (distinctive from his regular ones), and tugging on his Christmas Socks. “Hurry up!”

Eric grumbled a little more, but eventually he was staggering after Kevin out of their room and into the living room, which already had some other sleepy eyed dragons in it. Jacob was drinking a glass of cold water to try and wake himself up while Haknyeon and Younghoon stared blankly into the fire from the couch. Changmin was directly in front of the fire place, looking like he might fall face first into the flames any second.

Kevin heard someone rustling around in the kitchen, and minutes later Jaehyun and Sangyeon emerged with mugs of hot chocolate in their hands. “There’s more in the kitchen,” Jaehyun announced, moving toward the dining table and falling heavily into one of the chairs. At the proclamation, the rest scrambled toward the kitchen.

Mugs were lined up along the counter, and Kevin picked up a red one with a snowman on the side. It was still hot and he nearly burned his tongue trying to gulp it down. Chanhee and Sunwoo entered the room soon after, apparently just having left their own rooms.

“Who are we still waiting on?” Chanhee asked.

“Just Juyeon,” Haknyeon said. “I think he had to go to the bathroom.”  
As if on cue, Juyeon entered the kitchen and grabbed the final remaining mug. “Hey guys,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair and making it stick up at odd angles, “Merry Chrysler.”

“Christmas,” Haknyeon said.

“Yeah,” Juyeon said, downing half the mug in one gulp. He didn’t even flinch at the heat, and Kevin wondered if Juyeon was somehow still so tired that he didn’t realize that he’d just burned all his tastebuds off.

“Presents!” Changmin called from the living room impatiently, apparently much more awake after the hot drink. Kevin finished the last sips of his hot chocolate before following Eric and Juyeon out to the living room. He found a spare space in front of the couch and pulled down a pillow to sit on.

Changmin had already started passing out presents with Sangyeon and Jaehyun helping. Soon enough they all had piles of presents sitting around them. Kevin grinned at how his own pile ranged from big to small with various levels of competence apparent in the wrapping of the gifts.

“Alright,” Sangyeon said, getting everyone’s attention, “Before we all begin unwrapping presents, I just want to say how happy I am that we were all able to see each other this holiday. It’s been a while since we were all able to be in one place and… I guess I missed you guys.”

“Boo!” Sunwoo called, “Genuine sentiment isn’t allowed in this house!”

“Shut up, brat!” Sangyeon said, though he was smiling. “Anyway, I hope we can all get together like this again sometime next year.” There were a chorus of agreements around the circle. Kevin knew that his schedule was usually pretty clear, so he was certain that no matter when they decided to gather again, he’d be available.

“Anyway,” Sangyeon said, “Merry Christmas, everyone! Now let’s all see who gives the worst presents!”

An hour and a half later, Kevin had a pile of gifts including a new sketchbook and pencils, a array of paints, various fruits and energy drinks, a pair of warm socks, a book on magic application and a few other small, but no less heartfelt gifts from the other boys. He grinned widely, looking over his haul.

The others were arguing over who gave the worst presents, many voting for Sunwoo who had gotten a few people coupons to a nearby grocery store when he wasn’t sure what they wanted, but Kevin was happy with everything nevertheless. Snow continued to fall over the house, but it was by no means a quiet morning as laughter and warmth filled every corner.

Yes, Kevin thought, this was what he truly wanted for Christmas.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas, friend!! Eat lots of good food today!!


End file.
